THE VAMPIRE AND I

SEVEN

Mike drove to an apartment off the campus. It was a three bedroom flat situated in an apartment building. He parked in the garage. He and Alicia got down and went up to the apartment. They met Mark sprawled on the chair in the living room watching a show on the TV.

“Haven’t left yet, Alicia?”

“No. Still hanging around hoping to put some sense into your head.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Mike?” Alicia called.

“I have spent the last fifteen minutes listening to you talk about this Sage thing and I think I have heard enough,” Mike said as he came in.

“Did you find her?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, she was at Bruce Starters.”

“Was she okay?”

“Little disoriented but she’s all good now. Dropped her at her dorm.”

Mike went into the kitchen and left Alicia standing there. She was annoyed that both of them were ignoring her.

“Water, Alicia?” asked Mike from the kitchen.

“I’ll pass.”

Mark sighed and switched off the TV. “Won’t you sit?”

Alicia smiled and sat down, “Thought you’d never ask.”

“Okay. So, lay down your fears.”

“Seems like therapy.”

Mike came out from the kitchen, “It is: just that here, we judge.”

“Also seem planned.”

“It also is.”

Alicia smirked, “Well played.” She sat up on the sofa, “Five nights ago, the Sage requested an audience with your father, said he had something very important to say.”

“Who brought him out of his dungeon?” Mike asked.

“Your mother.”

“Mother? Why?”

“She said he deserves a second chance.”

“After what he did?”

“That’s a story for another day, Mike. Let her continue.”

“Thanks. He was living in the boathouse, he chose the place himself. A couple of days after his release, he started coming to the meetings and no one objected to it."

"All of you lost has been brainwashed," interrupted Mark.

"There was a time he went out from the palace," continued Alicia as though she had not been interrupted. "He stayed out for three days and two nights. When he came back, he demanded to see your Father and told him something about the both of you; your father didn’t say what but told me immediately to contact Walter.”

“I did and when Walter sent those girls’ pictures, I didn’t know. He sent them directly to Sage who went to your mother. Your mother sent me here in your father’s name.”

“Our father doesn’t know?”

“He does. He left it to your mother to handle.”

“So why did you say he sent you here?”

“I did because your mother said to.”

“So he doesn’t believe the Sage?” asked Mark.

“No, he does. He said he is handling it.”

Mike rubbed his eyes, “The full story now, Alicia. What else did the Sage say?”

She sighed deeply, “I can’t tell you.”

Mike scoffed, stood up and started to pace, “You are unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry, Mike. I can’t tell you.”

He stopped pacing and looked at her, “You come in here, no scratch that, you waltzed in here with problems that doesn’t exist. You waltzed in here creating unfortunate situations concoted by that vain and evil man!” he breathed in deeply to calm himself. “The least you can do Alicia, is to tell the full story. We are worth that, aren’t we?”

Mark started to laugh. He laughed and laughed nonstop for a full minute then sobered as quickly as the laugh had started. “If you can’t tell me or my brother the full story, then you need to get out. The way I see it, you are overstaying your welcome.”

Alicia stood up, pissed. “I wouldn’t say I was welcome at all. I was sent to deliver a message and that was what I did; you not listening to it won’t be my fault.”

“Are you leaving now?”

“Of course, surprised you’d ask.”

Mike sat down and shook his head sideways, “He doesn’t mean the apartment, Alicia. He meant the school, you are going back home right this moment, aren’t you?”

She looked at the two of them as if to say something then decided against it, “If it pleases you.”

“It does.”

She wet out and slammed the door without another word.

“Ouch,” Mark muttered.

“Chicken,” teased Mike.

“She must have really been upset. I haven’t seen that look on her face since Sam and I played that garden prank on her.”

“What were you watching?” Mike asked ignoring his brother completely.

“I can’t remember. I can’t remember how I felt then. I knew I had done something bad but I felt good? Can’t grasp that feeling now,” he sighed. “Alicia was pretty upset though, she wasn’t too happy about the prank; no one would have been.”

“Ramblings of a deranged human.”

“You wouldn’t know how, would you? Things like that never mattered to you.”

Mike who was already walking down the hallway to his room turned back to face his brother, “I am sorry I wasn’t pranking girls in my teens.”

“I am not sorry you didn’t, I am more sorry you let everyone down,” Mark spat.

“Do not put that on me, Mark. Don’t put it on me.”

“Must really be nice to have  a selective memory, picking only the good things and leaving out the bad ones for the unfortunate people to experience.”

When they reviewed this moment later, neither of the two could say who threw the first punch. Half a minute later, they had broken the table, Mike had been thrown into the TV which broke and gave him a lot of cuts, Mark’s back had broken a dinning chair and the whole living space looked as though an hurricane had passed through it.

Mark was standing up ready to pounce on his brother when the phone rang. It was on the floor, surprisingly in one piece, close to Mike. He picked it up, breathing heavily, “Hello?”

“Mike? Are you alright?”

“Victoria, hey,” Mark hissed and entered into one of the rooms. “What’s up?”

“I am fine, better now. Are you though? You sound kind of out of breath.”

Mike got himself to stand up, “Been exercising,” he said as he surveyed the damage he and his brother had incurred to the living room. “You called, why?”

“Um, to say thank you I guess.”

Mike smiled a little, “Are you cancelling our dinner already, Victoria?”

She sighed at the other end of the line, “Fortunately no, I am merely postponing it.”

“Sweet words to my ears. When will I be taking you to dinner now, ma’am?”

She giggled, “Very soon. Mike? Don’t exercise too hard.”

“Some people would say you care.”

“Some people would say I do. Good night.”

“Good night,” said Mike into the receiver as Victoria hung up.

He moved away from the mess to Mark’s room, tried the door and found it locked. He pounded on the door, “Open up, brother.”

“Can’t be worse if you add a broken door to the damage,” answered Mark from inside the room.

“You mean we, this isn’t my fault alone.”

Mark opened the door, “No, it isn’t.”

“You look awful.”

“You should see yourself,” he stepped back so Mike could enter the room then closed the door. “Sorry for hitting you.”

Mike smiled, “Yeah, me too.”

They sat down like that, in awkward silence one waiting for the other to speak up and iron out the issues in the air.

“You know,” Mike started, “I wasn’t always happy not being able to play pranks on girls, made me feel alone sometimes.”

“I will tell you,” said Mark grateful that his brother talked first. “It wasn’t much fun. You spend all week planning pranks just for it to occur without spectators, could be quite useless.”

Mike chuckled, “I figure that’s why you stopped.” Mark nodded yes smiling.

“About the selective memory thing-”

“Mike, I am sorry,” interrupted Mark

“Ah, it means nothing. I do think you have you have it too.”

“I do?” Mark asked with a frown.

“Yes, you do.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“The prank you said you played on Alicia, you told me you didn’t do it,” Mike waited a beat. “Even when Father threatened to have you locked in the dungeon, you vehemently denied it. Mother made me ask you even when I didn’t want to, you told me you didn’t do it, Mark. And you have never lied to me.”

“I don’t remember ever saying I didn’t do it. I was there. With Sam.”

Mike hesitated, “Sam said you weren’t there.”

“It’s been years ago, Mike. A little prank of decades past, not remembering that one thing doesn’t mean I have the same condition with you.”

Mike hesitated again, “What if that’s not the only one thing?”

“Are you talking about the m******e?”

Mike nodded ever so slowly. Mark stood suddenly and kicked away the bedside drawer, “I didn’t do it!”

“You were not accounted for at the time, Mark. You were for missing for days and when you came back, you wouldn’t speak. A month passed before you could remember anyone again.”

“I SAID I DIDN’T DO IT!!!”

“Calm down,” Mike said. He stood up, grabbed his brother by his shoulders and looked into his gray eyes that had turned black. “Maybe we do need to see the Sage.”

Mark let out a breath, “Maybe we do.”